Bet
by Diane Satabi
Summary: He leaned back and wore the expression he'd been trademarked for: his smug, and said, "Bet?" Smirking, she replied, "Bet." And this marked the start of their game.


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gakuen Alice and its characters.**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hurray, a new story! I hope you don't mind Natsume Hyuuga's out of character here. Please do enjoy. :)**

**…**

**Bet**

**By ONESHOTMASTURRR**

**…**

He whispered an assumption to her right ear.

"He's—WHAT?" She exclaimed as her olive eyes rounded in disbelief.

He simply nodded in response, pleased with her reaction.

"No way. Those… those golden—" She paused abruptly, not finding the guts to even think of its possibility. She refused to believe. "No way!"

He shrugged and said, "I have my own reasons to believe on that."

"Well I have my _own_ reasons _not_ to believe on that. That's so… stupid." Mikan retorted, shaking her head sideways.

He leaned back and wore the expression he'd been trademarked for: his smug, and said, "Bet?"

Finally, the word she'd been waiting for. A sudden gush of satisfaction washed through her being.

Smirking, she replied, "Bet."

And this marked the start of their game.

For the years Natsume Hyuuga and Mikan Sakura have been best friends, this was the only game that they never grew tired of playing. This, of all the games that existed, was they only game both of them agreed on playing most of the time. This game required good judgment and wits, and both were completely aware that each of them possessed more than that. That's the reason why they only chose to play this game with one another. Moreover, with their undeniable friendship, it was mostly the trust that was holding them together. When one wins the bet, rest assured that the other would do whatever it takes to accomplish the consequence.

**…**

Mikan Sakura walked side by side Natsume Hyuuga along the hallway of the dormitory building and together, they stalked the sole person who was the subject of their bet: Ruka Nogi.

Natsume snorted, "That stinks."

"The what?"

"Your… that thing inside your mouth."

"Ginger candy?"

"A candy out of ginger?" Natsume gaped.

They watched intently as Ruka Nogi waved to some of his guy friends, doing some secret handshakes to his closed ones, and winked to some of the girls who happened to pass by. Once, he came across a student who was part of the basketball varsity—just like him—and did the varsity's casual chest-thump-in-the-air greeting. That guy, passionate and eager to inform Ruka about their training tomorrow, grabbed Ruka's shoulders and shook it terribly, causing his head to tilt back and forth with indiscernible speed. If his head were his stomach, it could've thrown its insides out right then and there.

"See _that_?" Mikan muttered, half amused. But Natsume merely chuckled.

Ruka Nogi had finally rounded another hall when Mikan outburst her impatience. "For how long will we follow this d—"

In one sly and smooth move, Natsume hooked his arm around her head and put a hand over her mouth. She realized that the hall which Ruka Nogi had just turned and now was strolling at was the hall to his room. They both switched to their stealth mode. They kept a watchful eye from the corner as he reached for his doorknob, twisted it, and disappeared before the door.

"What now?" Mikan asked, barely audible. "How long do we have to wait again?"

"Who said we are to wait here outside?"

They stalked toward the door. No one else loitered around his hall. Natsume tried the doorknob. It was unlocked.

Still in their stealth mode, they entered, and slid the door shut behind them. They knelt, waited and listened. Ruka Nogi appeared to be taking a shower, but not that long, unfortunately. Even before Natsume and Mikan were able to find a good spot to hide and plan their exit route, the bathroom door opened to their left. Both of them scrambled over the sofa to hide.

And in the same moment as they lifted their eyes over the bright green sofa to the subject at the gaping door, the winner of the bet had been declared.

Ruka Nogi was indeed a—

The door to the hall opened and a person stepped in. Mikan attempted to scream hysterically just as anyone would scream hysterically after having learned who the person was. Her mere existence to this place was unbelievable, beyond anyone's imagination. Visiting a friend was never listed on her schedule. Impossible.

"Oh," Ruka Nogi, in his bath towel, said to his visitor, "didn't expect you to be this early, Hotaru."

Yes, the person was genius Hotaru Imai. She was holding a bottle with her.

"I have your order. I can't personally deliver it later 'cos I have an appointment." She said, as her eyes lingered on Ruka's head, "Isn't it just getting shinier everyday?"

"Shut up."

"Anyway, I have to go." Before stepping out of the room, she paused and said, "You fond of ginger?"

"No. Why?"

"You're room smells like ginger." She said. Her words came to Mikan like ice daggers that caused her to flinch. But it was apparently better than the discovery of their hideout.

Ruka Nogi sniffed. After Hotaru had disappeared completely before the door, he finally decided to stop searching for the scent and turned his attention to the bottle spray container, which was what Hotaru delivered personally, resting on a little table beside a couch. From Natsume and Mikan's point of view, they only see the caution and warning written at the back of the container.

Ruka Nogi picked up the bottle and scanned the writings as he unconsciously walked toward a mini couch, which in fact was the same couch where Natsume and Mikan's been hiding, and sat.

They peaked over the sofa. He was still scanning the bottle's inscriptions.

Looking past Ruka's shoulders, something struck Mikan as odd. Directly in front of the sofa was a wall—a plain, pale painted wall—with no other adornment and such.

_Who would find facing a dreary wall entertaining?_

Suddenly, a very loud music clouded her senses. It was then did she realize Ruka had reach for a remote control and pressed the play button.

_My loneliness is killing me. (And I) I must confess I still believe (Still believe)._

She felt a tug on her sleeves.

"Let's go," Natsume whispered, barely audible, "while this noise can cover up our escape."

Mikan refused. She was so mystified about this wonder wall.

"Just a minute more." She mouthed.

They both watched again as Ruka's head now rocked back and fourth in beat with the music. Ruka, with the remote still in his hand, pressed another button. They waited for a change in the music, but it never came. Instead, a visible line streaked vertically at the center of the wall in front of Ruka. They watched in amazement.

From a mere line, it broadened. However, it wasn't the line that was actually in motion. It was the walls. The walls were in motion, moving laterally away from each other.

It seemed like the wall was a gigantic sliding door of a cabinet of some kind.

In that wall-sized cabinet revealed compartments, and at each compartments arrayed a set of wigs carefully placed on synthetic plastic heads. Those shiny artificial wigs astonishingly shone against the spot light settled just above each of it.

Natsume and Mikan's eyes went as round as a saucer, gawking.

**…**

They finally pulled up to a stop, panting hard, after successfully executing their exit plan. They have run off to the campus' meadow.

Mikan Sakura had watched everything with wide eyes, but if she were to narrate again the series of events and of things she witnessed inside Ruka Nogi's room, she would find a difficult time.

Okay, but she'll try anyway.

Ruka Nogi's stunning golden strands of hair were not as stunning as it seems. That gorgeous hair he pronounced around the school campus was nothing more than a collection of tinted plastic, or perhaps even thread, or a special string out of an indescribable, unknown compound that was yet to be discovered. In layman's term, a wig. And for a bonus, they even discovered that he possessed more than what he needed. He's a collector of all kinds of wigs. And then his secret was shared with Hotaru. It seemed like she provided him a sticky liquid—an experiment of hers on the spray bottle container—that wouldn't let the wig easily come off. In other words, and to make the words as direct as possible: Ruka Nogi _is_ bald, and he's into wigs.

Just as what Natsume has claimed.

Then that means…

"I won the bet."

Mikan's eyebrow twitched at the completion of her thought.

"And I do the consequence." She added.

Natsume nodded slightly.

"And the consequence is?" That was an unnecessary question. But he answered it anyway.

"The usual," he said, smirking.

Her stomach turned and her heart pounded tremendously. Since the first time they've played this game called bet, their consequence never actually changed. For every conclusion of the bet, they decided to have only one consequence for the loser. And for the many times she'd been doing the consequence, it never failed to make her stomach and heart, and even her face, blood, and pores, react so badly.

She turned to Natsume, who was leaning against the tree trunk. She walked to his direction.

"So, how do you want it to be this time?" she asked.

Natsume considered that for a moment, then smiled. "The most passionate of the passionates."

That was a silly answer. They both know that each of them gives out their best to execute this consequence in order to satisfy the winner. But she acknowledged that anyway.

She stopped when she was closed enough to him, reached for his neck with her arms, felt his arm slowly wrapping around her waist, and then laid her lips against his warm and soft smirking lips, making the kiss _the most passionate of the passionates_.

This was the decided consequence: a kiss. The loser will kiss the winner. Both of them don't object to this consequence, because, on the contrary, they actually enjoy it. This is what's good about their consequence, neither of them will object, because both of them benefits either way. It doesn't matter who wins or loses, as long as their lips lie against each other, everything's assumed good. They still get to kiss each other. It's a give and take thing, a two-way effect.

Just as when Mikan was enjoying the kiss, surprisingly, Natsume broke it. She felt his lips moving away from hers, yet his arms were still secured around her waist. She was worried, they never kiss this little.

"Spit that," he said.

"What?"

"Spit the ginger. Dang, it's getting into my nose!"

Mikan laughed, relieved. She spit the candy to her left. "Should I get a mouthwash?"

"No, that's enough," he replied, not wanting to lose the moment.

He leaned forward. This time, it was he who led the kiss.

To the people who know how Natsume and Mikan play this game, it would seem like the consequence was more like a reward for both of them for finishing the game or for having the guts to oppose the other one even if the statement of the challenger was long ago already proven correct. But just for the sake of playing, they oppose.

And eventually, get a kiss.

**…**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, that was pretty simple. Did you like it? I want to know what you think! Please, leave a review! And I also encourage you to read my other stories as well. ****REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! REVIIIEEEWW! :))**


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